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NIOSH Center for Workers' Compensation Studies (CWCS)

Publications and Webinars

On this page you will find a list of publications produced as a result of projects which used workers' compensation data for prevention purposes. This list will be updated moving forward. Please submit any input to cwcs@cdc.gov.

CWCS Webinars

Copies of CWCS webinar presentations are available by request by emailing: cwcs@cdc.gov

2/25/15: Ohio BWC Year of Safety

In this NIOSH Center for Workers’ Compensation Studies (CWCS) webinar, speakers will discuss several ongoing and new prevention initiatives sponsored by the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. The OHBWC has a long history of providing a number of prevention programs to prevent occupational injury/illness. For example, since 1999 OHBWC has offered a Safety Intervention Grant (SIG) program where employers are provided matching funds to implement engineering controls. Recently, OHBWC and CWCS found that the program significantly reduced affected employee injuries and costs and OHBWC greatly expanded the annual budget. This past year, the SIG program provided $15 million to 535 employers and OHBWC allocated an additional $45 million for fiscal years 2015-17. OHBWC also allocated another $4 million to fund four major initiatives designed to enhance the safety, health and wellness of Ohio’s workforce.

Speakers:

Abe Al-Tarawneh

Mike Lampl

Mike Rienerth

Carol Morrison

Information for attendees:

Visit http://nioshtwh.adobeconnect.com/cwcs at the time of the meeting

Enter as a guest by typing your name in, and clicking on the “Enter Room” button

Once accepted into the meeting, please verify that your computer speakers are on; all audio will be delivered through your computer’s audio system.

In advance of the meeting:

* Please run a quick test of your computer by visiting https://na1cps.adobeconnect.com/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm

* Note that you do NOT need #4, the “Adobe Connect Add-in”, so it’s ok if that shows up as an error message through the meeting test tool, above. You will, however, need an updated version of Flash Player. In the event that Flash is not already on your computer (running the test above will help you find out), that may require IT help to install.

* Please check that your computer speakers are working, and that your volume is turned up to an audible level. If you are in an environment where you may easily be overheard, you may wish to use headphones.

12/4/14: The value of EDI claims data & dashboard analytics for states

In this NIOSH Center for Workers’ Compensation Studies (CWCS) webinar, speakers discussed the value of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions (IAIABC) Electronic data interchange (EDI) claims data collected by many states today. In addition, examples were provided to illustrate how some states are leveraging those assets through technology (analytic dashboards) to gain deeper insight into the WC system.

9/17/14: Worker Compensation Denominators

A main purpose of the recent NIOSH Workers’ Compensation Surveillance Funding Opportunity (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-14-227.html ) is to encourage states to combine WC data with state employment data to determine trends in rates of claims by specific industry group, and by cause of injury to focus prevention efforts.

Joining state WC claim data (first reports of injury) and employment data (employee counts and NAICS industry from state unemployment compensation insurance system records) at the employer level using the federal employer identification number (FEIN)

Adjusting employee counts with hours per employee data from sources such as the Current Population Survey (CPS), American Community Survey (ACS), the Bureau of Labor Statistics Labor, Productivity, and Costs program (LPC), and the Current Employment Survey (CES) to estimate full-time equivalents (FTE)

Calculating rates of WC claims per FTE for more specific NAICS industries and employer size classes, and for industries with more regional variation

Conducting sensitivity analyses of rate estimates based on differences in estimates from the different data sources above and choosing key rates to focus upon

7/23/2014: Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention

Prescription drug abuse and overdoses are a major public health concern. The CDC reports that opioid overdose deaths in particular have quadrupled since 1999, with more than 16,600 deaths in 2010 alone. Many states have taken steps to control opioid use in their workers’ compensation systems by limiting opioid availability, educating health care providers on responsible opioid prescribing, and increasing awareness among injured workers. http://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2014/05/14/opioid-abuse/

This webinar described prescription drug abuse prevention activities, emerging issues, and opportunities for future collaborations from the perspective of several organizations. Speakers included Noah Aleshire (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control), Gary Franklin (Washington Labor and Industries), Kathryn Mueller (American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine), and John Hanna (Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation).

5/21/2014: Predictive Analytics Webinar

Predictive analytics is an area of data mining that deals with predicting trends and behavior patterns. Workers’ compensation data includes detailed claims-based information (injury cause, nature) and survey-based information (employer workplace hazards and controls) that can be used to predict and prevent future injuries/ illnesses.

4/9/2014: Worker Compensation Causation Auto-Coding Part2

This webinar continued the topic of auto-coding presented 1/16/2014. Although material covered in the previous webinar is not a pre-requisite for attending this webinar, attendees will find it useful to watch the recording of the previous webinar beforehand. Speakers included Alexander Measure (BLS), Herman Tolentino (CDC), Gaurav Nanda (Purdue University), and Mark Lehto (Purdue University).

Workers’ compensation claims data usually includes a useful free-text (unstructured) data field that describes the cause of the claim and can be a rich source of information. However, manual coding these data fields is resource intensive and becomes impractical when the scope of a project includes a large number of claims. This webinar continued to introduce the audience to useful auto-coding techniques that utilize computer learning algorithms to code unstructured data.

1/16/2014: Worker Compensation Causation Auto-Coding

The second webinar sponsored by the Center for Workers’ Compensation Studies held on Thursday, January 16, 2014 is now available online. Experts from the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety (Helen L. Corns and Helen Marucci-Wellman, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Stephen J. Bertke and Alysha R. Meyers) and Purdue University (Mark R. Lehto) presented on the topic of auto-coding.

Workers’ compensation claims data usually includes a useful free-text (unstructured) data field that describes the cause of the claim and can be a rich source of information. However, manual coding these data fields is resource intensive and becomes impractical when the scope of a project includes a large number of claims. This webinar introduced the audience to useful auto-coding techniques that utilize computer learning algorithms to code unstructured data.

NIOSH Numbered Publications

Workers’ Compensation Insurance Primer for Public Health

This NIOSH numbered document describes workers’ compensation insurance, the industry, its records, and the potential uses of relevant information for public health purposes. A need for the document was identified at the second workshop on workers compensation data use for occupational injury and illness prevention. The document was prepared with broad stakeholder input and published in 2013.

Occupational safety and health research and surveillance are essential for the prevention and control of injuries, illnesses and hazards that arise from the workplace. Research and surveillance can fill gaps in knowledge about where hazards exist and what interventions are effective at preventing workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities. Workers’ compensation insurance records are a resource used for these primary prevention purposes. In addition, workers’ compensation records may be used for early detection of health outcomes in populations of workers which is part of secondary prevention. They may also be used to help identify effective medical treatment which is part of tertiary prevention.

Use of Workers’ Compensation Data for Occupational Safety and Health: Proceedings of June 2012 Workshop.

Several government agencies and private organizations sponsored a workshop on the use of workers’ compensation data for occupational safety and health purposes which was held in June 2012. The workshop fostered discussions on opportunities for collaboration in the analysis of workers’ compensation data in order to help reduce the risks of occupational injuries and illnesses. Stakeholders from private insurance carriers, insurance associations, self-insured corporations, academic institutions and government agencies participated. This second workshop on this topic included discussions of 6 draft white papers along with 35 platform and poster presentations on research with workers’ compensation data. The following can be found within this document, NIOSH Publication Number 2013-147:

Use of Workers’ Compensation Data for Occupational Injury and Illness Prevention: Proceedings of September 2009 Workshop.

The Use of Workers’ Compensation Data for Occupational Injury and Illness Prevention Workshop was convened to discuss opportunities for collaboration in the analysis of workers’ compensation data in order to help reduce the risks of occupational injuries and illnesses. Stakeholders from private insurance carriers, insurance associations, self-insured corporations, academic institutions and government agencies participated. Presentations described differences among state laws, proper interpretation of common industry terms, proprietary interests in insurance data, public release of internal analyses, and methods for linking workers’ compensation data with other health and employment data. The summary section describes the discussion sessions that identified some of the key advantages, limitations and future opportunities for collaborative research and surveillance using workers’ compensation data. The proceedings may be accessed at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2010-152/.

Journal Articles

This list includes peer-reviewed journal articles that were reviewed by NIOSH and determined to be related to one or more of the current CWCS goals. In the attachments, the articles are organized according to related CWCS goal, activity, main injury-illness outcome, and industry.